A Brief Guide to Star Trek

to discover that there were other fans out there who felt the same passion for the show that they did.
    Star Trek
had already taken off on college campuses, and Roddenberry had begun lecturing at campus events to large numbers of interested students, passing on his unique vision of the future. Coming up to fifty and essentially out of work, Roddenberry welcomed this extra income. The organisers of the New York convention knew they had a success on their hands when registered attendees reached 300 by November 1971 and requests began to come in from fans across the country (and Canada) for group discounts as they planned to attend in large numbers. Two days before the event the front page of
Variety
trumpeted the unexpected success to come under the headline ‘
Star Trek
Conclave in N.Y. Looms as Mix of Campy Set and Sci-Fi Buffs’. The organisers were overwhelmed when in excess of 3,000 fans turned up and spent the weekend in a convention space intended to hold no more than 1,200 people.
    Roddenberry threw himself into the event, happy to talk to fans about his experiences of producing the series (for an appearance fee, of course). Beyond the formal events, Roddenberry stayed around the convention in the evening, holding court with fans in various bars telling tall tales of his exploits in the military and the world of television production, especially his
Star Trek
battle stories. Alongside Roddenberry was his wife Majel Barrett, the sole on-screen representative of
Star Trek
. She was surprised to find herself mobbed by enthusiastic fans seeking autographs.
    Gene Roddenberry’s Great Bird of the Galaxy moniker, accorded him in recognition of his role as creator of
Star Trek
, referred to a mythological creature mentioned by Sulu in an early episode, ‘The Man Trap’. The original line was intended as a light-hearted invocation of good luck: ‘May the Great Birdof the Galaxy roost on your planet’. According to Stephen Whitfield’s
The Making of Star Trek
, written during the show’s second year, it was Herb Solow who first applied the name to Roddenberry, but associate producer Robert Justman began using it in memos, such as in this one from July 1966: ‘If I don’t get those preliminary set sketches for “Mudd’s Women”, the Great Bird of the Galaxy is going to do something nasty to you.’
    As the Great Bird, Roddenberry, saw things, the New York convention was an opportunity to reap some of the approbation due to him that had been lacking from within the television industry, where
Star Trek
was largely seen as a failure. He took the chance to paint himself in as favourable a light as possible and to claim primacy of creation when it came to
Star Trek
, effectively sidelining all those many others who had contributed to the effective realisation of his vision on screen. It was a pro -cess that early
Star Trek
fandom would happily collude with. The New York event did much to create and fuel the myth of Roddenberry as the sole creative intelligence behind
Star Trek
.
    The possible return of
Star Trek
became a central discussion point at the convention, something that Roddenberry himself – ever the canny television producer – was keen to talk up. ‘I didn’t think it was possible six months ago’, said Roddenberry to
TV Guide
about a revival of his show, ‘but after seeing the enthusiasm here [at the convention] I’m beginning to change my mind. It is possible to do it from my standpoint.’ In a prescient statement, the
Los Angeles Times
agreed with Roddenberry’s view, saying of
Star Trek
in June 1972 that it was ‘the show that won’t die’.
    Fan-produced
Star Trek
newsletters and fanzines had appeared as early as 1967, with
Spockanalia
put together by fans Sherna Comerford and Devra Langsam. As the title suggests, the first
Star Trek
fanzine was inspired by the show’s enigmatic Vulcan character and the debut issue contained a letter from Leonard Nimoy. The fanzine ran for five issues, through to 1970.
    Many others followed into the 1970s, resulting in some significant fan publications, notably
TREK: The Magazine for Star Trek Fans
and
The Star Trek Concordance
. Such fanmagazines would contain non-fiction articles about the show, but would just as often publish fans’ artwork, short stories or poetry, as well as often vibrant letters columns. With no new
Star Trek
on television, the fans themselves took control of the show, telling each other new adventures through fanzine short